What Does 2 Chronicles 26:18 Mean in the King James?
And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Uzziah means “Yah is my strength,” yet the verse shows that strength cannot seize sacred weight: honor comes from God, not rank.
THE MEANING
This verse places a boundary around set-apart work: position does not make every sacred act yours. Trespass is a breach of trust, and the weight of honor remains with God rather than with a title. The rebuke names a living truth: authority cannot turn an unentrusted act into honor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that power or spiritual intensity makes a person entitled to what has been entrusted to someone else. Crossing that boundary does not add honor; it breaks trust.
THE ROOT
לְכָבוֹד
le-kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
K-B-D
To be heavy or weighty; by extension, to carry honor or significance.
The word translated “honour” is kavod, literally weight. The verse’s denial is sharper than withheld praise: rank cannot make the act weighty before God.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This branch shows the concrete sense beneath honor: what is honored carries weight.
kibbed: Honored, treated as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
The same root links honor to recognizing what has real weight, rather than claiming status for oneself.
הַמְקֻדָּשִׁים
hammequddashim
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
Q-D-Sh
To be set apart, distinct for a particular purpose.
“Consecrated” and “sanctuary” grow from the same root: the priests are set apart for the work, and the place itself is set apart. English separates the people’s consecration from the sanctuary’s nature, while Hebrew holds them in one pattern.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This branch names the quality shared by the priests and the sacred work.
miqdash: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary is not merely a location; its name shares the root of the priests’ setting apart.
מָעַלְתָּ
ma'alta
GROWS FROM
מעל
M-ʿ-L
To act treacherously or break faith; in sacred contexts, to commit sacrilege.
“trespassed” in this verse is ma'alta. The rebuke names more than crossing a physical threshold: the root points to broken trust. In this verse, entering the set-apart place for work not entrusted to you becomes an act of unfaithfulness.
ALSO GROWS
ma'al: Unfaithfulness, treachery.
מַעַל
This branch makes clear that trespass carries the weight of broken trust.
me'ilah: Sacrilege, a breach involving what is sacred.
מְעִילָה
This branch connects the breach directly to the set-apart nature of the place and service.
THE PATTERN
Set-apart work has boundaries, and claiming what is not entrusted turns authority into trespass.
To be a memorial unto the children of Israel, that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before the LORD; that he be not as Korah, and as his company: as the LORD said to him by the hand of Moses.And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.THE THREAD
Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.“Honour” here comes from the same כבד (K-B-D) root as the kavod withheld from Uzziah: both carry the sense of weight. The shared root opens the verse further: honor has weight when it is grounded in God, not when it is seized by rank.
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